This Week in Culture: January 24, 2014

There’s too much damn information floating around these days: interesting things to read, beautiful places to see, impressive figures to remember. Lucky for you, your weekly digest of culture starts right here. This week, the menu (it’s prix fixe) is full of goodies like Olympic controversy, inspirational work spaces, a billion dollar bracket and much more.

Our very own Mr. Eric Yang joins Banksy, Ai Weiwei, Derrick Rose and Daft Punk on HYPEBEAST’s list of the 100 most influential men of the year.

Five Ring Circus

A lot has been said lately about the Sochi games (which start February 7th), and very little of it is about athletes. Instead, talk has been focused on the rampant corruption: it’s estimated that for the same price that Vladimir Yakunin, a former KGB general and friend of Putin’s, built a 31-mile road and railway, he could have paved the thing with Beluga caviar. Oh, here’s one about an athlete…getting disqualified at a tournament for obscene gestures. Save us, curling.

If you fill out a perfect March Madness bracket, Warren Buffet will pay you a billion dollars.

Bills on Bills

You heard it from Bill Gates: by 2035, there will no longer be “poor” (by the current definition) countries in the world. Meanwhile, everyone’s favorite scientist, Bill Nye, takes on poverty myths, and Bill Murray talks shop on Reddit.

Social Security

Japan provides a case study for how to make weird porn (sorry, no link), but also how to pay for an aging population and build public bathrooms.

THE ENERGY BILL IS TOO DAMN HIGH

For the past 30 years, Con Edison’s New York customers have paid for Madison Square Garden’s $650,000 energy bill. Not anymore, MSG. Not anymore.

Clone Wars

These Star Wars movies are beginning to remind us of the Land Before Time series. What number are we on? VII? Anyways, the script is done. Thanks, J.J. Abrams.

Where Math and Love Collide

The most interesting article about math you’ll read today. Unfortunately, the acts described in the article may also have been illegal.

In 2011, Jimmy Chin climbed one of the hardest peaks in the world, Shark's Fin on Mount Meru. What's more impressive is that he filmed the adventure, then turned it into a documentary that just won big at Sundance.